Federation of migrants blasts proposed entry promissory note

June 17, 2013, 16:27 UTC+3"I believe it's not just discrimination, but humiliation of migrants," president of the Russian migrants' federation Muhammad Amin Madjumder said

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MOSCOW, June 17 (Itar-Tass) - President of the Russian migrants' federation Muhammad Amin Madjumder criticized the proposed bill to introduce a 30,000-rouble promissory note for migrants entering the country, as "superfluous" initiative and discrimination against foreigners.

"I believe it's not just discrimination, but humiliation of migrants. They are trying to humiliate them in various ways, especially when lawmakers come up with such proposals. Migrants are regarded as second or third rate whereas migrants are people," he said in indignant comments to Echo Moscow radio.

"Lawmaker should examine the problem; it's as if they have nothing else to do," Madjumder went on to say, adding that "no normal deputies would support the bill.

He called for developing another approach to the solution of the problem of legalization of migrants.

Russia's Federal Migration Service /FMS/ said it does not support the proposal.

"What's 30,000 roubles to an Uzbek citizen, for example? It's like three million roubles to us. It's practically unrealistic for migrants to raise this sum," head of the FMS department for Moscow Olga Kirillova told reporters on Monday.

Kirillova said she regarded this measure /introducing entry notes/ as very harsh.

Earlier on Monday, mass media outlets reported that State Duma lawmakers Alexei Zhuravlyov and Sergei Zhigarev /from the Liberal Democratic Party /LDPR/ had drawn amendments to the federal laws on the procedure of exit from the Russian Federation and entry into the Russian Federation. It commits the foreigners who enter Russia visa-free to purchase a migration note.

Under proposed legislation, it is a new financial instrument ensuring the solvency of the foreign citizen. "A migration note, which is a note to order, is acquired by a foreign citizen who has come to Russia under the procedure that does not require a visa, within the view of ensuring his or her solvency in case of deportation. As a valid financial obligation, it is due for redemption in case of foreign citizen's leaving Russia," the authors of the bill said.

The believe that it will help save Russia's national integrity, decrease the crime rate and attract additional funds to the state budget, which might reach 225 billion roubles a year given par value of the migration note at 30,00 roubles, and 7.5 million migrants entering the country each year.

Lawmakers noted that Russia deported 35,134 persons last year, and 28,585 in 2011. Deporting a native of a Central Asia country costs 30,000 to 40,000 roubles on the average. "These expenses create an unjustified load on the budget and dismantle the effect for the national economy from the labor of foreign migrants," the authors said.

The parliament is to debate the new bill in the autumn, Zhuravlyov's press service told Itar-Tass.